PART 2
When two boats meet a boat they must avoid under rule 23, that boat may independently be large enough to be an obstruction, but the definition includes any such boat as an obstruction. Rule 23 lists a capsized boat, a boat that has not regained control after capsizing, a boat that is anchored or aground, or one that is trying to help a person or vessel in danger.
What happens when two right-of-way boats meet a keep-clear boat that is not keeping clear? She is not an obstruction. Consider the mirror-image of the bottom-right diagram of the previous figure, with a close-hauled port-tack boat crossing (and not keeping clear of) two close-hauled starboard-tack boats. Both right-of-way boats are required to avoid contact, by rule 14, and, if in so doing one of them breaks a rule of Section A in respect to the other, it will have been an infringement compelled by the keep-clear boat’s infringement, resulting in exoneration under rule 64.1(a)1
.
An area defined in the sailing instructions as an obstruction, and an object that can be safely passed on one side only, are automatically obstructions. A right-of-way boat, a boat entitled to room or mark-room, and a boat that has to be avoided will rank as an obstruction only if it meets the general test in the first line of the definition, namely that a substantial course change would be needed at one hull length from it. This general test determines whether an object not specifically listed is large enough to be an obstruction. Applied strictly, it can raise questions.
Daffodil is sailing as close to windward of Iris as is compatible with keeping clear. The anchored boat is not an issue for Iris. Daffodil could avoid it with a slight bear-away in the absence of Iris. Since the definition Obstruction refers to a substantial course change, is the anchored boat an obstruction giving rise to an entitlement to room? Yes, because the definition poses a hypothetical test, related to whether a substantial course change is needed at one length when a boat is sailing directly towards it. If Daffodil were sailing directly towards the anchored boat (I think one must assume towards its middle), a substantial course change would be needed. Therefore, it is an obstruction giving rise to the right to room even if in practice it requires only a small course change.
Room at an Obstruction
Daffodil Iris
The fact that Iris, in the absence of Daffodil, would not need to take avoiding action does not make rule 19 any less applicable. It is enough that Daffodil could not avoid the obstruction2
.
A race committee boat forming one end of a starting or finishing line is usually large enough to be an obstruction, but sometimes it is rule 18 that applies to boats approaching it, sometimes rule 19, and sometimes neither3
. The
sailing instructions may state that the committee boat is a starting or finishing mark, but when they do not do so and the committee boat is surrounded by navigable water, the definition Mark does it for them, because the starting or finishing line projects from a specified mast on the boat.
1 RYA 1989/12 2 WS 11 3 Preamble to Section C and rule 18.1
RYA The Racing Rules Explained 89
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